


Office Hours

by gingayellow



Series: Shiro and Keith are Married and Happy and Okay and Everyone Else is Happy and Okay Post-Series AU [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 11:16:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8977465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingayellow/pseuds/gingayellow
Summary: When you get married, it's usually assumed that you will meet the family of your spouse. Instead, Keith finds himself meeting Pidge's family, and dealing with some Garrison-old issues. [Shiro/Keith, post-series AU, some Allura/Lance]





	

Title: Office Hours  
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender  
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: Not mine, anything mentioned here by name isn't mine  
Warnings: None  
Notes: Post-series AU. This is meant to fit in the same AU that "Vows" takes place in, but you don't have to read that to read this (although I have made it a series, so it's easier for you if you want to read the earlier fic). Originally, there was more "love stuff" going on between the newlyweds, but it eventually grew into more of a gen piece about Keith and the Holts. This is probably one of the more indulgent things I've written (I'm really into Jane Austen, so.) ALSO: While Pidge's mom has a PhD in literature in this verse, I'm using the "Mrs. Holt" tag because that's all we got atm. 

\--

Keith was in a pretty good mood. Work had been busy, but quick—every repair had gone smoothly, and every customer (mostly Arusians needing help with their tiny scooters, which had become a bit of a fad now that the Galra Empire was gone, and planets were more willing to talk—and trade—directly with each other) was satisfied. Things had dropped off the last hour, so Keith left early (sometimes it was nice being your own boss) so he could surprise Shiro with dinner already on the table when he got back from teaching. And then they’d go star gazing, and then maybe, just a little bit more than stargazing.

 _Not a bad plan at all._ He couldn’t help but smile as he let himself inside their cottage. And he’d been so worried about newlywed life with Shiro. Turned out it was easy as driving a hovercycle.

Keith paused in the middle of removing his jacket when his comm—the devices Pidge built for all of them before she rejoined her family to build a tiny science empire on Balto with her family buzzed/flashed green. Hunh. He wondered why Pidge would be calling him. “Hey.”

**_“FIRST OF ALL, HOW DARE YOU, KEITH.”_ **

Keith just barely managed to not drop the comm, silently grateful that it was audio only—that way, Pidge didn’t see him jump. “What did we do?!”

“Oh, you know.” Pidge wasn’t screaming anymore, but her tone was still heated. “It all happened about three weeks ago, when you and Shiro decided to run off and elope?!”

“Pidge, we eloped twenty miles from our cottage. That’s not running off. Besides, we sent out messages and cards.” They’d heard back from everyone except Pidge—which hadn’t been surprising, since she’d been on a deep space mission. No one had thought it’d be a big deal, since she’d get her message when she returned.

But apparently, it was. Keith strode to their tiny kitchen, getting out a pan for so he could make what passed for meatloaf on planet Arus. “Why do you care?” Oops. He was old enough now to realize that sometimes being direct wasn’t the bad idea, but not quite old enough to correct his habit. “I mean, didn’t you say once that romance was for boring people?” Hmm. That was a bit better, but not by much.

“It’s different when your brothers in arms get married, Keith,” Pidge informed him testily. “I mean, how would you feel if I ran off with, I don’t know, some person and moved to… some place?”

“I don’t think that’s going to happen Pidge.” Keith got the ‘meat’ and ‘eggs’ out of the fridge. “But you got a point. Both of us were… kinda nervous, so we decided to just get it done with.” If he’d known how happy he would be as Shiro’s husband, he wouldn’t have given it a second thought, however.

“I can respect that, Keith. I can. Just as you can respect that you and Shiro are coming to Balto to visit me and my folks.”

Keith froze. Visiting Pidge was fine. But he barely knew Pidge’s dad, and had never met Pidge’s mom. And Matt… there had been a lot of glaring. Not just when they met at New Altea; back at the Garrison. That wasn’t unusual—no one liked the weird kid with the greasy hair and the knife (except for Shiro, but even back then, Shiro was weird). He had a feeling that Matt was mad that Keith ‘stole’ his best friend—which Keith could get, even if it wasn’t true (even if the ‘stealing’ had involved ace pilot Shiro following Keith like a puppy until he finally worked up the nerve to ask him out for lunch). Matt was still rebuilding his life, and Keith highly doubted that a surprise visit from the guy that he hated was going to help.

He had to find a way out of this. “Um, money’s tight right now and—”

“I just wired the money for fuel and food for a two-way trip into your account.”

Keith pulled out his tablet, and checked. She had. “I need to ask Shiro if—”

“I already did, and he agrees that it would be a **great** opportunity for all of us to get caught up.”

… And he would, the freaking traitor. “Fine. But I reserve the right to be grumpy about this.”

He could almost hear Pidge’s smirk in his voice. “Now that’s the Keith that I know and love. To torture.”

Keith was going to hate every minute of this.

\--

“Keith, we haven’t even reached Balto yet, and I’m already loving every minute of this.”

“Of course you are.” Keith kept his eyes on the stars—he had charts and programs to keep them from getting lost like any responsible pilot, but nothing beat using your own eyes and sense for navigating. “You took a nap and had an extra helping of space goo while I’m doing all the work.”

“Not true—although those are factors.” Shiro kissed Keith’s cheek, and then settled into the passenger seat. “Do you want me to take over for you?”

“Nah, I’m fine. We’ll be landing in an hour anyways.” Which meant that he could no longer put this off. “Hey, Shiro.”

“Yes, Keith?” Shiro’s voice and face were as gentle as ever.

“Listen. Pidge knows me, but the last time I met the Holts—”

“Was when we celebrated Allura being crowned Queen of New Altea,” Shiro finished for him fondly. “Hey, remember when Lance finally worked up the nerve to ask Allura for a date?”

Keith couldn’t help but smile, because years later, it was still funny. “And he finally realized he needed to actually admit he liked her instead of bad lines?”

“Even if it meant—shock, gasp—showing vulnerability.” Shiro laughed softly.

Keith laughed as well. “And he was trying to following Altean protocol concerning talking to royalty, but couldn’t read what Coran had written on his arm—”

“And he was sweating because he was so nervous as well, and finally just blurted out—”

“‘Wanna get a soda?’” Lance had been a shaky, teary, stammering mess—but then Allura had said yes. And then next thing anyone knew, they were engaged. Keith nudged Shiro with his shoulder. “Although seeing how we evilly eloped, I guess we can’t really judge.”

Shiro smiled, but Keith must not have been hiding his feelings as well as he thought, because he grew serious. “Everything okay, love?”

Keith frowned. “Is there going to be a room I can duck into when being social become too much?” There was no point in mentioning Matt, because while Shiro was a brilliant tactician, he was just too naive when it came to stuff like this. If Keith mentioned that he thought Matt hated him because Shiro had become close to Keith—beginning at the Garrison, compounded when they became Paladins and saved the universe from Zarkon—he would just try to fix it. Arrange some painfully awkward group activity for all of them, and that would only make things worse.

“Oh, I get it now.” Shiro reached out with his left hand, playing with Keith’s hair lazily. “I think there’s a spare room if you need to duck out.”

“Okay, good,” Keith breathed, as he began landing. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all.

\--

Two hours later, and things were very, very bad.

It hadn’t started that way—it never did. Pidge had greeted them all bundled up in her thermal coat, hugging/playfully punching them/asking them what they wanted for dinner. Matt accompanying her had been awkward, but Matt (so far) had been friendly. He spoke mostly to Shiro—which made sense; they’d been friends since they were freshman at the Garrison—but he did ask Keith how his shop was doing. It was bland civility, but it was a far cry from the tiny upperclassman who would glare at him whenever he came to pick up Shiro.

But now they were at the Holts’ home, and everyone. Was talking. Very, very loudly. Even Shiro had been sucked into the Holt-nado, and was currently debating some fine point of astrophysics against Dr. Holt and Matt, with Pidge siding with Shiro. 

Now was the time to find that spare room.

Keith exited silently. As he searched, he finally had the time to give the Holts’ new home a look over. It was simple, but definitely where a family of scientists lived—books about subjects he’d never heard of, and a small table stacked with tablets. Just looking at it all made Keith’s head hurt—yes, he piloted spaceships, but his knowledge was… specialized. He could fly anything. But honestly, and he hated to even think it because it was so snobbish… he just always knew what to do. Flying, speed, distance, navigation—all of that came naturally to him as breathing. But after that, he was essentially useless.

And maybe that also played into why he decided to run off.

Keith stopped when he saw a door. He rang, and when there was no response, he pressed the button, and good, it was unlocked. It was a medium-sized room, with a small desk and a couple of bookshelves—books with titles he could understand. He must have found his way into a library.

Bored, Keith grabbed the first book he found— _Pride and Prejudice_ , by Jane Austen. He never read the book growing (bouncing around the country to whichever relative was willing to put him up for a year meant he had little access to books or a library), but he had some cousin who’d watched the film version when he was fifteen. It was okay.

He supposed it was time to see how the film compared to the book.

\--

“Hunh. Usually I have to beg the young people to stop by my office. Maybe things work different on Balto than Earth.”

Keith was about to ask Pidge what the heck she meant by that… but no, it was Pidge’s mother, who happened to sound a lot like her daughter. Oh, crow.

“I.” Keith put the book away. “I’m sorry, I thought—”

She held up one hand. “Don’t ever apologize for reading.” Then she held it out to Keith. “Professor Kathryn Holt. You’re Shiro’s husband, right?”

“Yes, ma’am, Keith Shirogane. I went to your school with your son and served with your daughter and Shiro as a Paladin.” He shook her hand, and then saluted her. He’d already messed up before by sneaking in to her office; he was going to be on his best behavior.

“Relax, I’m not Garrison.” Professor Holt glanced at the book. “You like Jane Austen?”

“Hrn.” Keith considered what he’d read so far. “Well, I just started reading it.”

Professor Holt leaned against the wall. Her grin was broad and evil—just like her daughter. “And what do you think of it so far?”

“It’s okay, I guess? It’s just…” Keith wasn’t a scholar, so he was going to stop there.

“Go on.”

Keith was in no position to refuse his hosts, so he took a moment to pull his thoughts together. “Darcy’s a pain. He thinks he’s better than everyone else, but can’t even work up the nerve to tell Elizabeth he likes her.”

“I see.” Professor Holt’s face was thoughtful. “Most people like Darcy.” 

“He’s a snob and a loser!” Keith cleared his throat. But Professor Holt didn’t look mad that he had insulted the beloved character of a beloved book—she looked like she wanted him to keep talking, actually. “I, um. I did like Mrs. Bennet.”

“Hunh.” She pulled out a chair for Keith, and then took a seat behind her desk. “See, most people cannot stand Mrs. Bennet.”

Keith shrugged. “Well, they’re gonna lose their house once the dad dies, right? And since the only way for her daughters to not be broke is to marry up, so.” He took the offered chair. “She’s doing way more than the dad. He’s just sitting in his library.”

“All very interesting thoughts, Keith.” Professor Holt propped her feet on the table. “Tell me more.”

\--

They were halfway through the book together when Matt stepped inside. “Hey, Mom? We’re setting the table now.”

Professor Holt huffed. “Okay, I’ll be there in a bit. But you,” and she pointed a finger at Keith. “Grab whatever books you want, as long as you want. My only condition is that you email me and tell me what you think about each book.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Keith wasn’t going to go that far, but he was a little interested in _Persuasion_. Professor Holt said he would most likely see a bit of himself in Anne Elliot. He watched as she left the room, leaving him along with Matt, whose smile faded the instant his mother was gone.

“Um.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean to spend so much time with your mom, we just kind of started talking and—”

“Actually,” and Matt smiled awkwardly, “I was gonna thank you.” He rubbed his thin hands together. “Mom, as you probably guess taught literature back on Earth. She came here because we all agreed nothing was gonna separate us again, but…”

“There’s not much for a literature professor to do on Earth’s first science colony,” Keith finished for him.

Matt nodded glumly. “She’s been teaching correspondence courses, but it’s not quite the same. And we’ve tried nerding out about lit with her, but honestly? I don’t know entailment from my en-fron-tment.”

Keith frowned, wondering why Matt paused at that last word, as if he expected a reaction. “It was a rule that only men could inherit property.”

Matt gaped at him. “How did you learn that so fast?!”

“I read about it in the book.”

“Smart, quick, and to the point. No wonder Shiro fell in love with you. And Pidge won’t shut up about you.” Matt sighed heavily. “And why I was so jealous of you back at the Garrison.

Keith couldn’t quite look at Matt. “Because. Because you felt like I took Shiro from you, right?”

“Well, yeah, that was part of it. But you were also cool, and tough, and also looked like you stepped out of an adventure novel.” He was smiling, but it was tinged with guilt. “You were everything a nerd like me wasn’t.”

Wait. **That** was what Matt thought? “Matt, I was an eighteen-year-old with a bad attitude and greasy hair. That’s the opposite of cool, tough, and adventure novels.”

Matt laughed, thwapping Keith gently. “All of that, and? He’s modest.” Then his face grew serious. “But, look. I haven’t seen my mom that happy in a long time. As far as I concerned, you’re part of this family now.”

Keith frowned. “Even though you’ve been secretly envious of me for years?”

Matt laughed again, smacking Keith on the back as they left for dinner. “That’s called sibling rivalry, Keith.”


End file.
